Korg Poly-61 Synthesizer

The Korg Poly-61 was released in 1982 as the successor to the Polysix. It’s the first synth that adopted what KORG calls “Digital Access Control” user interface that is also used in POLY-800. I answered an advert which was offering two of these (one working, one not). The working one works well except for the dead backup battery. (A little tech note: This uses a 3.6 battery. A standard 3v 2032 won’t work. I tried it hoping it was just enough juice.)

The non-working Poly-61 was a victim of backup battery leak. It’s kind of a mess inside.


Polyriffic spec-o-meg-a-rama…

  • Polyphony – 6 Voices
  • Oscillators – DCO1:sawtooth, pulse, and square; DCO-2: sawtooth, square
  • LFO – 1 LFO can modulate the DCOs or the Filter
  • Filter – 1 lowpass filter w/ ADSR
  • Memory – 64 patches
  • VCA – ADSR
  • Keyboard – 61 keys
  • Arpeggiator with external sync
  • Effects – Chorus
  • Control – MIDI (on later Poly-61M models)
  • Date Produced – 1982 – 1986


Acquired: 2008

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